In order to increase the recording density of magnetic storage devices, the performance of the write head of a hard disk drive plays an increasingly important role. Current writers with trailing shields suffer from several major shortcomings. For example, the cross-track field gradients of such write heads are poor, which can result in adjacent track interference (ATI). In this regard, writers with trailing shields tend to have large stray fields, which can result in adjacent track erasure. One approach to solving this ATI issue involves providing “wrap-around” shields, in which additional shield layers are disposed on opposite sides of the write head in the cross-track direction. While many side shield configurations have been proposed, most present design and fabrication challenges, while still suffering from an unsatisfactory level of ATI.